The Voicemail
by Camy-Tay
Summary: Sasuke can't reach Sakura. Sakura's hanging on for her life. What does a voice-message matter at a time like this?
1. Chapter 1

"Hey, what's up?" Sasuke heard on the other side of the phone.

"Good. Listen, I was wond--" he started.

"This is Sakura, but I'm not here. Try my cell, or leave one. If I like you, you'll know my number. If it's a huge emergency, start running around Konoha and hope you find me. If I love you...Bye!" the automation said, beeping at the end.

Sasuke sighed. He'd been trying to reach the kunoichi for hours now to ask how she was. At training she had worn high heels like Tsunade and tripped around all over the place. he wanted to make sure she was okay--where could she be?

To his great disappointment, he didn't have Sakura's cell number, which bugged him greatly. He swore it was only because she was unreachable without it, but really it was that damn answering machine.

He sighed and tried again, the words ringing in his head. 'If I like you, you'll know my number.' Of course she liked him--so why was he the only one to not know that number?

Finally giving up, he sighed as he walked outside and started to look for the Cherry Blossom. It wasn't the best weather, but at least nothing was falling from the sky either. He shuddered at memories of the freak hail-storm the week before.

Every night, the Team Kakashi and Sai and Yamato would go out for dinner, or over a house for dinner. It was always a different person's choice, but they had to go. It was "bonding" for Team Kakashi.

"Bond my ass," he muttered, hearing an obnoxious laugh after his words.

"Teme, you're so kinky," Naruto told him, laughing. Then he sobered up. "Have you seen Sakura lately? I need to tell her where we're going for dinner tonight. She's not picking up her cell."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. From what he knew, she always did. "Really?"

"Yeah, and nobody's seen her since training. Do you think she's okay?" Naruto answered. "It's not like her. That phone is like a life-line."

The Uchiha looked up to the Hokage Mountains. Where could Sakura be? Wait! Even Naruto had her phone number? Why didn't he have it? Sure, he'd been an ass that left her in a park on a cold, hard bench; but he made it up to her!

"We should start looking. Where were we training?" Sasuke replied, sighing. Well, he still owed her. Only a little, but soon he'd have to start proving he loved her, and that still needed some practice.

"Um...near the forest," Naruto replied.

Sasuke sighed. "Naruto...which forest?" he asked, slapping his head.

"Oh yeah! Um..."

As the dobe stressed his brain thinking, Sasuke thought he noticed something on the Hokage Mountains, but when he activated his Sharingan, all there was were trees. Must have just been his imagination.

Then Naruto snapped his fingers. "Right! We were around the Forest of Death!"

Walking together, they made their way over, while Sasuke thought of what other forests they should try looking in.

Line Break

"Think positive, think positive," Sakura told herself, gripping the Hokage Mountains tightly. "God, I'm never wearing heels again in my life."

Kakashi had been training them in the forests just behind the Hokage Mountains, and it was still slick from the hail-storm less than a week before. Somehow, after training a gust of wind through her off-balance and she started to fall down the mountains.

"Why did...No, think positive--things I like. Okay. Puppies, kittens, monkeys, Kakashi without a mask, Sasuke-kun, my cell--"

It rang again and she sighed. For the past three hours, it had been ringing, but she was too afraid to pick it up in case she fell to her death. "Okay, maybe not my cell.

"Um...Naruto with Hinata, TenTen and Neji, Shikamaru with Ino...Poor Chouji. He has two horny teammates and he has nobody. I wonder who I'll date...focus!" she said, snapping back to her own thoughts.

She sighed. It was no use. She was using so much chakra, any minute now she'd fall. She closed her eyes and started to think of regrets.

"Never telling Ino she's the closest thing I have to a sister, never helping Hinata with that stutter, not being stronger, never being kissed...telling Kiba Akamaru was a girl--but he should know! Still, what he did with her wasn't right."

Her hand slipped and she started to fall. Shit, this was it! Surprisingly, she didn't fall too far--just far enough to knock the wind out of her and knock her out on a hokage's lips. She wondered for her last seconds of consciousness what would happen if she didn't show up to dinner at Naruto and Hinata's that night--would anyone even notice?

Line Break

"Dobe, are you sure this is it?" Sasuke asked as they walked through another forest. "We've been at it for hours. the sun's setting!" he told him, sprinting towards the Hokage Mountains.

Naruto looked and stared at one mountain in particular--the Rodaime's, his father's. It was his favorite sight in all of Konoha, and he memorized every contour of it perfectly.

"Huh. That's not supposed to be there," he said aloud and absentmindedly before shrugging. "We can try the Kibou Forest! But I don't think she's there. Do you know where she could be?" he asked Sasuke.

The apathetic one stuck an eyebrow to the sky. "Naruto, I don't even have her cell number. Do you really think I'd know?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "I don't know. Sakura never got around to saying what she'd do if she loved you on her answering machine, did she?"

Sasuke sighed. His best friend, ladies and gentlemen, was a moron. And how he didn't remember anything about her saying love on the voice mail...did she still love him?

"Fine...do you want the number Sasuke?" Naruto asked as they made it into the Kibou Forest and looked around.

Uchiha nodded. "She's not..." he looked up and saw another forest nearby. Why did they not think of this one? "Dobe, could that be it?"

"Nope. The trees were further apart than the Hokage Forest's trees," Naruto replied. "Let's try the Sakura Forest."

Line Break

"Dobe, it's the only forest left."

"Fine. We can go look for her in the Hokage Forest," Naruto said, leaping over.

After a quick search, they found the spot they had been training in...but no Sakura in sight. Sighing, Sasuke and Naruto sat down and thought where she could be. And after awhile, Naruto thought of something. "Maybe she's over my house now!"

"Let me just call her cell," Sasuke told him, dialing the numbers on his own. Oddly, he heard a ring below, further down the mountain. However, there was no answer and so Sasuke sighed and tried again. Once again, no answer, but ringing below them. "She's not answering."

Naruto shrugged and yanked Sasuke towards his house. Just as they came in front of the Hokage Mountains, Naruto looked back at his dad again and gasped.

"What are you--Sakura!" Sasuke said, turning and seeing the kunoichi rested on the Rodaime's lip. she almost seemed asleep.

"Sakura! Sakura!" Naruto yelled, waving. But Sakura didn't move.

"Stay here, I'm getting her," Sasuke told him, climbing up the mountain.

What he saw shocked him. Sakura was twisted like a pretzel and her face covered in bluish-black bruises. One of her ankles was swollen, and if he didn't see her chest move up and down, he'd say she was dead.

"Sakura," he whispered, saddened at her state. "I'm sorry. I should have been here to protect you."

He picked her up, and brought her to the hospital, not evening stopping to tell Naruto what happened.

Line Break

"It's great to see you back, Sakura-san," Sai told her, a week later when they had dinner at Sasuke's house. "How do you feel?"

She smiled, but it turned into a grimace. "Like I hit a ton of bricks. The air will come back normally soon though. How have your missions been?"

Today she was finally released from the hospital, being told that the impact her lungs took wouldn't heal easily. She was given medical probation from missions for two months to recover, but she didn't want them. Sadly, Tsunade forced her to follow them.

"Not as much fun without you Sakura," Naruto replied, hugging Hinata. "We were both so scared for you! Thank God my Dad saved your life."

Sasuke slapped him across the back of his head, putting the roast down and taking his seat next to Sakura. He kissed her on the lips, and hugged her closer to his side.

"Itadakimasu!" chorused around the table as they all dug in.

Naruto took a bite and then looked over to his two teammates. "Okay, so maybe Sasuke saved you--but Dad kept you alive long enough to find you!" he amended, pointing a fork at them and bugging out his eyes.

Sakura laughed. "You two would have found me sooner if you didn't try every other forest in Konha first. Have we ever trained in the Sakura Forest before, dobe?"

"That's my girl!" Sasuke exclaimed, kissing her on the lips again. "I can't wait until we get married."

Kakashi looked up from whatever he was doing in his lap, and cocked his head to the side as he looked at his two students. There, on Sakura's ring-finger, was a giant engagement ring.

"When did that happen?" Yamato asked.

Sasuke smiled. "When I called her over her cell the other day. It's so nice to have your number."

"You idiot, that's why I never gave it to you," she replied, whacking him lightly on the forehead. she turned to the elder men. "We were two feet away and he had to call my phone."

Sai laughed--actually laughed really and whole-heartedly--while Kakashi sighed and Yamato pursed his lips together to keep from laughing.

Hinata finally asked. "Why didn't you give him your number?"

"Because he never stops calling, and texting, and sending me photos, and videos, and--see?" she told them picking up her ringing phone to show Sasuke was texting her at that second. "I swear, whoever gave him my number will die."

Naruto felt his impending doom and laughed nervously. "Why?"

"The message on my answering machine was supposed to be, 'If I love you, you'll never get my cell number. You'll bug me every five minutes.' Except, my dad took it off because he found it offense and taunting that I wouldn't even give him my cell number. So whoever gave it away to Sasuke, whom I love with all my life, will die."

"Just answer the phone, Sakura," Sasuke told her. "Thank you Naruto for telling me."

Shooting daggers at her friend, she opened the text and gasped. She smiled and kissed him on the lips, then whacked the back of his head. "I'm not an Uchiha yet, thank you very much.

Sasuke sighed and put the phone away, rolling his eyes.

_I love you, Sakura Uchiha._


	2. Attention Fans

Hello,

This is not the writer you know as Camy-Tay. This is her brother, Jae, and I regret to inform you that she will no longer be able to write stories for you. November 18 of 2009, we received word that Cam had cancer. We caught it during her check-up after having the tapeworm removed, but we had not caught it in time.

April 17, 2010, Cam passed away from leukemia.

It has taken me almost a year to figure out her password to tell everyone what has happened. I am sorry for all of you that expected updates. I don't know why she ever made her password the mascot of the first boarding school she attended, but whatever. I loved her, but she was weird.

That being said, I know nothing about , except that Cam wrote on this website and she would want her followers to know she passed. I think they receive updates on her every entry, but I will try to post this letter at the end of every story she's written.

I will keep her page up and try to have her friends write stories in her memory so that she may live on, but I haven't talked to many of them since her funeral.

I'm sorry and God bless Cam. May she be in good hands.


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